Sometimes it’s nice when a game plan comes together perfectly.
Looking for a quick start in this battle for first place in Section 2-5A, South Fayette scored an early touchdown and never looked back in beating Upper St. Clair 17-6 in six innings Monday evening at Boyce-Mayview Park.
“We came with a game plan,” South Fayette first-year coach Marc “Bubba” Snyder said. “We know Upper St. Clair loves to play small ball, and our goal was to get a bunch of runs in the first inning to take the small ball away from them.
“We wanted to be aggressive in the first inning. The goal was to get a crooked number to start the game. We didn’t expect to be up by seven, but if we’re up three or four, it’s harder for them to lay down some bunts.”
Upper St. Clair junior pitcher Ethan Capobres was coming off a gem of a start in a win last week against Trinity. However, it didn’t take long before this start was far different from that performance on the mound.
With a runner at second base and two outs in the first inning, seven straight batters reached for South Fayette.
Cody Bungert walked, then Luca Gioia delivered an RBI double, followed by run-scoring singles by R.J. Borgesi and Coly Cloherty to make it 3-0.
Following a walk to Jacob Bostian that loaded the bases, Evan Mizia cleared them with a three-run double. He then scored on an error to make it 7-0 visitors.
USC plated a run on a groundout in the bottom of the first, but South Fayette added on when Bostian cleared the bases with a three-run double following two hit batters and a walk.
Capobres lasted only two innings, yielding nine earned runs on six hits with three walks and two hit batters.
“Ethan didn’t have it, but that was probably more on me than him,” Upper St. Clair coach Jeff Donati said. “I was bringing him back on four days rest, and I probably should have given him a little more (rest). That’s on me because we do have other capable arms. The ball was up, and credit to them, everything they hit was hard.”
The Lions’ offense was ferocious, scoring in every inning and not allowing the Panthers any chance to think about a comeback.
“I got a special group of athletes across the board,” Snyder said. “One of the things I’ve been preaching is we are one team. I have a special group that, in my opinion, has been overlooked. Our section is a gauntlet, and everybody talks about every other team except for South Fayette, so we’re playing with a chip on our shoulder.”
There were plenty of hitting stars for the Lions.
Bungert had three hits, including a double and triple, and led the way with four RBIs, while Trey Skeen, Borgesi, Bostian and Mizia all had two hits.
Bostian, who finished the game in relief of Ryan Speer, and Mizia, the No. 8 and 9 hitters in the South Fayette lineup, both had three RBIs.
South Fayette improves to 5-2 atop the section while Upper St. Clair falls to 2-3.
Both coaches had the same sentiment heading into their section series finale at South Fayette on Tuesday afternoon.
Forget what happened in Game 1 and focus on playing well in Game 2.
“Upper St. Clair is a fantastic baseball team,” Snyder said. “In high school baseball on any given day, you don’t know which team is going to show up.”
“You just got to move on,” Donati said. “It’s a funny game. They had 16 hits and we had 11, yet we lose by (11 runs). Last year the same type of thing, we went out there and they destroyed us in Game 1 and we came back here and won Game 2. You have to have a short memory in baseball.”